Born near Boone, North Carolina, Blackburn attended common schools and became a lawyer.

He was admitted to the bar in 1890 and practiced law in Jefferson, North Carolina.

A clerk for the North Carolina Senate in 1894 and 1895, he was elected to the state house in 1896 and 1897, the second year serving as speaker pro tempore.

He ran unsuccessfully for re-election in 1902, but was elected to a second non-consecutive term in 1904 in the 59th U.S. Congress.

Declining to run again in 1906, Blackburn returned to his law practice in Greensboro, North Carolina and died in Elizabethtown in 1912; he is buried near his hometown of Boone.